Phal with only one root left - needs saving

[nutgirl]

Good Job Luiza!!

I think your plant will be very happy.

Rosie's right, you'll soon have a collection of used food containers...and you get the bonus of things like chocolate mousse!

The bathroom sounds like a good place for starters. The roots do not look bad.

I don't know if it's been mentioned but temperature is really important for encouraging root growth. Try to keep the pot a constant warm temperature. I mention it because sometimes bathrooms are one of the cooler rooms in the house.

They make heat pads for starting seedlings, I don't think you need to go that far but don't let your plant get cold. Water with warmish water.

Maureen

[Rosiefuture]

What a cute little pot, looks great!

Marion

[Triffid]

Brilliant Little Pot Nice Job

Also Maureen (aka Nutgirl) is right to mention Temperature!
Rosie has already mentioned the water temp

Regards Ambient Temp
It is advised with Phalaenopsis that in the growth season they prefer the temps not to drop below (ideally) 60 Fahrenheit or 15.5 Celsius. As most folks I've come across have the central heating set higher than 15c this shouldn't be too difficult to manage.
It will need ventilation, but just remember to keep it away from unnecessarily cold drafts.

Only when you want it to shoot up a spike should you look at lowering the Night temperatures, but I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) by about 5F (about 2 to 3C).... or is it 10F (about 5C)

[LuizaG]

Hi everyone

Many thanks for all your advice!

I am happy to report the orchid is doing fine. It's new leaf has became firmer, still a bit wrinckled but definetly firmer. The temperature around it is about 25 - 26 C (77 - 78.8 F) Maybe higher when we take a showers. It has humidity from the tray with water underneath it, I spray it when I'm around and it gets it's portion of steam from when we shower. The bark becomes dry in about 3 to 4 days and I started watering with lukewarm water. I decided to not use seaweed fertiliser for about 2 weeks after repoting, will start weakly weekly later with that as well as the Orchid Focus - Growth fertiliser. KLN I found at :
Orchid Accessories

but will not use it for the moment.

On an unrelated matter, I could not help myself and bought another Phalaenopsis with purple flowers that go excellent with our white walls in the bedroom. When I bought it I checked the roots and leafs and they all seamed healthy and vigurous. It's in a 12 cm pot and it has only one spike and propably that's why is was a cheap orchid. I have placed it in a deep saucer that sits in the middle of another deep saucer with water. Temperature around it is 25 - 26C just like the recovering one in the bathroom and I spray this one as well, in the morning and later when I get home from work. Not sure why it has only one spike, it seams that the place where the other spike was supposed to be has only a small bump that never grew or maybe that is a new root. Hope it will spike up normally next year. Photos:
Picasa Web Albums - ChristiLuiza - Orchid

Questions about this new phal:

1 At this stage should I use fertiliser for flowers (Orchid Focus - Bloom)?
2 After the flowers are dead, should I try to cut the spike above a node to try to let it flower again? It's not showing any signs of growth yet as no new leaf present.
3 After that second set of flowers, should I repot? it looks like it's time from the amount of roots.
4 It had no lablel but could the little sticker on the pot mean something?
5 As the pot is bigger it seams it doesn't dry so fast, how do I know for sure when to water? I bought it 4 days ago and haven't watered yet.
6 Would it be reasonable to spray it with a 0.5 or 1% neem solution just to make sure? You never know where it has been and next to what plant it was before. Here's the recipe:
Neem Insect Spray: Making And Using Neem Garden Spray
7 When repoting would it be ok to spray the roots with a preventive neem solution again or would it hurt them?

Well these are all the questions I could think of to bore you with. I'm still a learner...

All the best!
Luiza

[nutgirl]

Luiza,

Sounds like you’re on your way with the first one!
The purple one is lovely.

1. Fertilizer for phalaenopsis is generally recommended to be a balanced (all three numbers are close to the same, ie: 10-10-10) diluted and fed each week. Called weakly, weekly.

2. You can try for another bloom but more than likely the stem will turn brown and die after the last flower falls off. Keep in mind it does take a lot out of the plant to make flowers. You might want to concentrate on growing roots and leaves at this point.

3. I believe you can repot Phalaenopsis any time. The reason for repotting is to refresh old potting medium or change to a different kind or go to a larger pot. If you repot now you may not need to go to a larger pot. You don’t want to use anything larger than the roots will fit in.

4. Hard to say.

5. This is why you don’t want too big of a pot. It takes longer to dry and if you water too frequently the roots can rot. The bamboo skewer method works very well. Stick a bamboo BBQ skewer into the pot about half way from the edge. Pull it out when you think you might want to water. If it feels cool and damp, wait longer. If it’s warm and dry, time to irrigate.

6,7. I’m not one for preventative sprays. Maybe someone who does might give some advice.
　
Have fun!
Maureen

[Charles_NewRows]

When I’m treating a very sick orchid I usually do the sphag and bag method. I’ve found that the key is keeping the humidity near 100% without having to mist the plant. If the crown stays wet too long when a plant is seriously compromised things can Uturn quickly. This method allows the plant to focus on recovering rather than trying to control its own hydration with a damaged root system.

I attached a few pictures of a SEVERLY sick orchid that I received recently. It was not properly protected during shipping and became insanely dehydrated. This is the most dehydrated orchid I’ve ever seen, it was quite literally an orchid cracker.

Step one is always hydrating the best you can, and figuring out which parts of the plant is still viable. I soaked this plant for an hour and then bagged it for two days because it was in such bad shape. After two days I was able to tell which roots were still viable. Unfortunately almost all of the roots were bad and there was a severe fungal infection. But this was actually good news in a way, I thought the plant may of been toast.

Step two is clearing out the rot. I pruned off the dead roots and treated the plant with a fungicide. Usually I treat infections with hydrogen peroxide, but due to the severity I used daconil. For hydrogen peroxide I dip the roots for about 45 seconds, spray the leaves (if necessary); and then let the plant sit for an hour under a small fan. For daconil I let the plant sit for 14-24 hours in a dark, 78 deg spot.

Step three is when I seal the plant in a zip lock bag or airtight container. You don’t want to plant the roots (lol or root in this case) it’s good to have as much air around the plant as possible and a potting mix is not needed for hydration while the plant is sealed. It is important to stand up the plant. I like staking it on top of a little cup or perlite. Then I add some slightly damp sphagnum moss in one of the corners of the bag, you only need about a tablespoon of water. I like putting the sphag in a clay pot just to keep it separate and the clay will help the Water evaporate. ***the wet sphag should NEVER come in contact with the plant during this process** Then just seal the bag most of the way, then blow into the bag to inflate it, and then seal the bag. That’s pretty much it. I usually open the bag about once a week to let in some fresh air and check for fungi reacurance. It is very important that the plant receives bright indirect light while recovering. I like using grow lights for this since it allows me to provide just the spectrum that I want without the heat and radiation.

Hopefully someone will find this helpful. This is a method that has worked for me, but you should always research multiple resources. Happy Gardening,

Charles L.